Stephanie Weaver

Hospital staff have been praised for helping to save the lives of a newborn baby girl and her mum who lost nine litres of blood while giving birth.

Heather and Dean Fisher, from Corby, wanted to thank teams from maternity, surgery, anaesthetics, paediatrics and neonatal intensive care at Kettering General Hospital after all of them were involved in Heather’s complex delivery, which lasted more than four hours.

Jasmine Fisher at Kettering General Hospital

Mother-of-five Heather, 36, and her 18-day-old (on Monday, Aug 3) baby Jasmine, are both now doing well but two weeks ago things were very different.

Mrs Fisher, who is manager of a jewellery shop, said: “We knew I would have a high risk pregnancy because the scans had shown that my placenta was implanted low in the uterus very close to scar tissue from previous caesarean sections which meant that I was at a risk of significant blood loss.

“We also knew that it was likely that Jasmine was going to be born premature and that was going to be risky too.”

Plans were made for Mrs Fisher to have Jasmine at a specialist unit in Leicester but she went into labour early and rather than risk moving, the family chose to have the birth at Kettering Hospital, with a consultant and team that Mrs Fisher trusted, on July 16.

They saved the lives of my wife and baby, but also the mother of our four other children

Dean Fisher

The hospital then quickly prepared a team of specialists to support Jasmine’s birth – which was 10 weeks premature.

A team of 11 staff from various departments were involved in the care of Heather and Jasmine including consultant obstetricians, Mr Sunil Doshi and Mrs Adeeba Nishtar, consultant general surgeon Mr Salem Al-Hamali, consultant anaesthetists Anjali Bilolikar, Nigel Dunk, and Asquad Sultan, and paediatric registrar Dr Mya Mya Yee, along with other experienced doctors, nurses, midwives, and theatre staff.

Dad Dean, a finance and IT director, was present throughout the birth.

He said: “I knew that it was a very dangerous situation.

“Heather actually lost nine litres of blood during the birth – and the human body only holds five.

“But using a special cell saver machine the team were able to filter her blood and feed it back into her.

“Even so it was a very serious situation.

“I was incredibly anxious but I was very well supported throughout while the teams involved got on with the job and saved Heather and Jasmine.”

Mrs Fisher was transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU) where other specialists continued her care including consultant anaesthetists Dr Nigel Dunk and Dr Jan Szafranski, Dr Abi Noah and the ICU team.

She was under sedation for several days while her body healed.

She then moved to the high dependency unit in Labour ward before a stay on Rowan Ward where she was discharged on July 26.

Jasmine was born weighing only 3lbs 12oz and was transferred into a resuscitaire cot immediately in theatre before being moved to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Sister Jane Lafferty in NICU said: “From theatre Jasmine went direct to our neonatal intensive care unit and for a short time needed a ventilator to help her breathe.

“After six days she was moved into our special care unit where she is doing well – but will stay with us for the next four weeks.”

Mr Fisher, and the couple’s other children Josh, 18, Jordan, 17, Jacob, 13 and Lewis, nine, were able to visit Jasmine in SCBU.

Mr Fisher was able to sleep in a special relatives’ area in intensive care to be close to his wife while she was in ICU.

Staff in SCBU kept a diary and took photos of Jasmine during the first few days while Heather was unconscious in ICU.

Mr Fisher said: “We just wanted to say a very public thank you to all the wonderful staff at the hospital who have supported us so well.

“The standard of care and support was fantastic during a very difficult and worrying time.”

Mrs Fisher said: “When I woke up in ICU after the third day I saw Jasmine for the first time.

“It was just so amazing.

“We want to thank all of the many people involved in our care.”

Mr Fisher said: “All the staff involved have been remarkable.

“They saved the lives of my wife and baby, but also the mother of our four other children.

“They supported us every step of the way and we just wanted everyone who was involved to know just what it has meant to us.”

Consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Mr Sunil Doshi, said: “This was quite a rare and unusual situation that only occurs very infrequently.

“All of the teams involved worked very well together for this successful outcome.